A Quinnipiac national survey finds that having a Tea Party candidate on a general election congressional race ballot could negatively affect the Republican's chance of winning.

Republicans lead the generic ballot test by a 44%-39% margin over Democrats. However, when a generic Tea Party candidate is thrown in the mix, the Democrat receives 36% and the Republican 25%, with the Tea Partier taking 15%.

"The Tea Party could be a Republican dream – or a GOP nightmare. Members could be a boon to the GOP if they are energized to support Republican candidates. But if the Tea Party were to run its own candidates for office, any votes its candidate received would to a very great extent be coming from the GOP column," said Quinnipiac assistant director Peter A. Brown

More voters around the country have a favorable view (28%) of the Tea Party than unfavorable (23%), but most (49%) don't know enough to form an opinion. According to the poll, it "has more women than men; is mainly white and Republican and voted for John McCain, and strongly supports Sarah Palin." They (85%) also feel that the government is doing too much.

"The Tea Party movement is mostly made up of people who consider themselves Republicans," said Brown. "They are less educated but more interested in politics than the average Joe and Jane Six-Pack and are not in a traditional sense swing voters."

Meanwhile, the Democratic and Republican parties are viewed more negatively than positively.

The survey was conducted March 16-21 of 1,907 RV with a MOE of +/- 2.2%, including 253 who said they were Tea Party members.

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